Pflaumer discusses Green River case

She predicts criticism now that identity as 'special master' has been revealed

By TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, September 9, 2002

Former U.S. Attorney Kate Pflaumer said she knows she'll be the target of criticism and second-guessing. She wanted her identity to be kept a secret.

But her name has now been made public as the "special master" who helps decide what resources Gary Ridgway needs for his defense. So last night, she briefly discussed the challenges that she believes lie ahead for the lawyers for the man charged with four of the Green River slayings.

"This case is unlike almost any other I have seen on the national death-penalty scene," said Pflaumer, who was on an advisory committee that studied how capital punishment is applied nationwide. Ridgway's lawyers, she said, "are facing a million pages of documents" in evidence "and a 20-year-investigation they've had no part of."

Judge Richard Jones appointed Pflaumer in April and ordered her identity to remain a secret, but the idea that an unnamed person could help make big decisions with taxpayers' money bothered some.

Ridgway's lawyers asked that her identity remain secret. They said she should be insulated from the controversy -- as well as the angry phone calls and letters they have received.

They now say chances are growing even slimmer that he will get a fair trial.

Attorney Todd Gruenhagen said politicians and the media have been "attempting to shift this case into a 'Taxpayer v. Ridgway' posture" and may make picking an impartial jury impossible.

David Smith, a lawyer for the county's Office of Public Defense, said the special master's job "has been unfairly characterized as having more influence over the process than it has." He said the person merely advises about what resources Ridgway is constitutionally allowed. The court orders the funding.

He argued against a Seattle Times request to have Pflaumer's name unsealed in King County Superior Court yesterday.

King County Council members have fielded some criticism for the secrecy.

Councilman Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, said he could understand why, in this case, the special master might have concerns for her safety or her family. He noted it was "a highly charged case."

Councilman Rob McKenna, R-Bellevue, said Pflaumer was a reasonable choice -- she is well respected and, as a former prosecutor and defense attorney, has "seen cases from both sides."

Office of Public Defense administrator Jim Crane said she has experience handling complex litigation and with the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which handles death-penalty appeals.

President Clinton appointed Pflaumer as Western Washington's top federal prosecutor in 1993. Her office prosecuted criminal cases ranging from cybercrime to environmental pollution to terrorist Ahmed Ressam. She had been a longtime private defense attorney.

Ridgway's case is more complex and costly than most, mainly because King County sheriff's detectives have been investigating the four women's deaths -- along with 45 others -- for two decades.

This year, the council has approved $2.7 million to give Ridgway seven attorneys in addition to one he hired; eight investigators; six paralegals; two clerks; and money for technology, experts and other items.

Pflaumer said the only case that has come close to this magnitude could be the Unabomber case, in which Theodore Kaczynski is serving life in prison for five separate bombings. The police investigation was lengthy and amassed an overwhelming amount of potential evidence.

She said the extraordinary funding is justified in Ridgway's case, though she noted that "it certainly raises some very difficult public policy issues about funding."

She said the choices made by the prosecutor's and sheriff's offices have made the case more costly, including charging him with four separate crimes and saying they will probably try to link him to others.

"If the prosecutors chose to just charge (Ridgway for) one victim, we'd be in a very different situation," she said.